BENGALURU: The three-week-long ‘padayatra’ demanding the Scheduled Tribe status to the Kuruba community ended in a massive convention in Bengaluru on Sunday where lakhs from the community gathered.
While leaders of the Kuruba community, cutting across party lines shared the stage and displayed a show of strength for the community’s demand, the most-popular Kuruba leader in Karnataka -- Siddaramaiah -- gave the convention a miss.
The leader’s reluctance, his close aides said, stems from his internal tussle between his status as the natural mass leader of Kurubas versus the carefully-crafted image of an AHINDA (Acronym for Minorities, Backward Classes and Dalits) leader.
“It is with Siddaramaiah’s support that we as Congress leaders can mobilise such a large number of Kurubas and lead the demand for the ST tag. He even participated in a few initial gatherings, but ever since there have been murmurs of the RSS-BJP attempting to use this agitation to destabilise his support base among other communities, he has chosen to remain distant,” said H M Revanna, a senior Congress leader and one of the prominent faces of the agitation.
Sources close to Siddaramaiah attest to the sentiment.
“It is a very sticky situation. On one hand, if he endorses the demand actively, then other communities that look up to him as their leader will be miffed. On the other hand, if he does not endorse the demand, Kurubas will be disappointed. It’s a Catch-22 situation. Eshwarappa is utilising this opportunity to claim unquestioned support of the community to craft his son’s future,” a close aide of Siddaramaiah said.
With animosity against Siddaramaiah from Vokkaligas within Congress already on the rise thanks to his cold war with KPCC president and Vokkaliga heavyweight D K Shivakumar, the Congress Legislature Party leader is treading cautiously lest he loses popularity with any other community, especially after Youth Congress election process has left Muslim cadres too miffed with him.
His decision to stay away from the convention was, according to his aides, a step to ward off murmurs of him catering only to the needs of the Kuruba community while claiming to be an AHINDA leader.
Padayatra: Panchamsali seer arrives in Sira
The padayatra, demanding 2A reservation for the Panchamsali community, on Sunday reached Sira taluk of Tumakuru and will move to Chikkanayakanahalli taluk on Monday.
The ‘sea of people’ will thereafter proceed to Bengaluru, said Panchamsali seer Basava Jayamruthyunjaya Swamiji.
“We have been demanding that the CM give a statement on the timeline needed for receiving the report from Backward Classes Commission,” he said.
Meanwhile, Vachananda Swamiji of Harihar Gurupeet, continued his padayatra, for the same cause.